I first saw the movie, 12 angry men, in grad school, as part of a course. It was meant to get us to rethink our prejudices and preconceived notions. Somehow, while the movie was interesting, it just didn’t ring as relevant in a class where there was remarkably little diversity….

I was initially skeptical of Hamlet, arguably one of Shakespeare’s finest tragedies, being re-imagined as a comedy. In case you don’t remember the storyline, Atul Kumar (playing a clown who plays Hamlet), helpfully summarizes the plot for the audience at the beginning Hamlet dies, Ophelia dies, Gertrude dies, Claudius dies…